Playoff Preview: The Battle of NPI

It comes down to this, folks. The Detroit Red Wings vs. the Pittsburgh Penguins for the Cup. Me vs. Elly. I made a really awesome Battle of NPI banner for the blog, but my computer overheated before I thought to save it. I'm smart, I know.

We at NPI think the highlight of this series is that it is going to have to be some amazing hockey. The two best teams in the league facing each other head on, the likes of which each other has never seen - not since preseason. Whichever team takes this series is going to have to be nearly perfect to do it.

Key Matchups:

Offensively, everyone is talking about the one-two punches of Sid the Kid and Evgeni Malkin vs. the Eurotwins and Selke finalists, Pavel Datsyuk and Henrik Zetterberg. There's basically no arguing these are the two most exciting, skilled combinations in hockey. Both duos have 40 point between them (20 goals and 20 assists for Pav and Hank, 13 and 37 for Sid and Geno), and both have proven themselves absolutely deadly. Perhaps because neither of the Eurotwins singlehandedly saved hockey (I kid), they don't seem to get the league-wide attention Crosby and Malkin do - but perhaps this will be the season that ends that. The Penguins pair is glamorous and offensively gifted, but the Red Wings duo excels at both ends of the ice, as obvious by their twin Selke nominations, and may be the more well-rounded. Either way, neither can be taken lightly.

Of course these aren't the only weapons for either team - Pittsburgh is finally getting their money's worth out of 20-point Marian Hossa, and the Wings, until he was sidelined with concussion symptoms, had a 12 goals in 11 games scorer in the Mule, Johan Franzen, as well as Tomas Holmstrom being a pest in front of the net. And of course something must be mentioned of the WWGRD phenomenon creating Gary Roberts - just not sure what that something should be (I'm a fan of the bracelets, for the record - but I'm going to have to boycott them through this series). Each team has established secondary scoring and substantial depth.

Both teams look strong on the defensive front. The Penguins who were originally thought to have a suspect blueline going into the playoffs added Hal Gill to compliment Sergei Gonchar among others. The Wings, however have the unflappable Nicklas Lidstrom (if they take the Cup this year it will be his fourth with the team, an honor he shares with the Grind Line and Holmstrom) and his new partner Brian Rafalski who combined are at least among, if not, the best defensive pairs in hockey. And then there's Niklas Kronwall and new addition Brad Stuart - don't call the Wings a soft team. These two will hunt you down. They will find you. And they will smear you across the boards. This defense has been a huge part of the Red Wings' success - they've seriously limited their opponents shots on goal, and if you can't get the puck on the net, you can't put it in, either.

And finally, the goaltending. Veteran Chris Osgood, a cup winner but often criticized as being the winning goaltender on a team that could have taken the cup with a pylon in net, fighting to prove his goaltending worth against relative newcomer, though not without any credibility to his name, Marc-Andre Fleury. Osgood (10-2, 1.60 GAA, .931 SV%) stole the start from Dominik Hasek and has been stellar ever since, but surely the Wings defense has played a huge part in that. Fleury (12-2, 1.70 GAA, .938 SV%) has been the Pens go-to goalie from the beginning and likely the stronger overall between the two, not to mention he's managed an admirable 3 shutouts so far, but he's also got inexperience working against him. Osgood should be on a mission - if he takes the Cup this year will it redeem him against all the trash talk he's heard since his last victory? The worst goalie to win a Cup is one thing, but I'm not sure you can argue the worst goalie to win two cups.

When it comes down to it, the teams are incredibly even-looking. Which will wind up on top, the youthful Penguins or the renewed Red Wing dynasty? Will we stay friends? Will the series be everything that's being predicted of it? We can only hope.

Schedule:

Game 1 -- Saturday May 24th, 8:00 p.m. Pittsburgh at Detroit
Game 2 -- Monday, May 26th, 8:00 p.m. Pittsburgh at Detroit
Game 3 -- Wednesday, May 28th, 8:00 p.m. Detroit at Pittsburgh
Game 4 -- Saturday, May 31st, 8:00 p.m. Detroit at Pittsburgh
x-Game 5 -- Monday, June 2nd, 8:00 p.m. Pittsburgh at Detroit
x-Game 6 -- Wednesday, June 4th, 8:00 p.m. Detroit at Pittsburgh
x-Game 7 -- Saturday, June 7, 8:00 p.m. Pittsburgh at Detroit

Let's get it done before Game 7, okay guys? I'm lined up to go see The National in Pontiac that night.

Around the Web:

Elly and I are off to Toronto for the weekend so posting opportunities through Game 2 will be slim - thus, we refer you to some solid blogs from both teams to keep you posted in our absence.

Representing the Wings:

• Behind the Jersey
• On the Wings
• Gorilla Crouch
• Abel to Yzerman
• Gloveside

And the Penguins:

• Empty Netters
• The Pensblog, our oldest friends in the blogosphere!
  
• Talk Hockey To Me
• The Sidney Crosby Show
• Going Five Hole

Friends & Foes

When your team has been disposed of, is it time to jump on the bandwagon of one of the potential Cup champs? Whether the answer is yes or no, everyone seems to be swaying at least one way or another. Through this final stretch of the season, the Red Wings have lured in such esteemed bloggers as Katebits (at least for the day!), Kirsten and Nadine, and the Penguins, meanwhile, have earned the loyalties of Cat (by way of latent understandable Wings hatred) and have been Connie's sweethearts from the beginning...anyone else? So far the Wings have it 3-2; Heather apparently likes both, and Sherry is leaving it up to whomever between Elly and I are more convincing over the course of this weekend in which we'll all be in Toronto. Let us know who you're rooting for and we'll add you to the list!

Once again, the series promises to be amazing - I can only hope it follows through. Hold on, folks, it ought to be quite a ride.

Six Long Years (Wings 4, Stars 1)

The Red Wings put on a pretty damn good show tonight, in the face of an opponent who wouldn't go away, who really did scare us, even if just a little, even if we weren't about to admit it. The Stars fought until the end, and they were far better than they were given credit for being. But the Wings looked great and they did exactly what they needed to do - work as a unit, a gritty, determined, talented unit, that really, really wants to lift Lord Stanley's Cup. Now they just have to beat Pittsburgh. One step away. Be proud of them.

Game One of the Battle of NPI will be Saturday night at 8:00 pm - Elly and I are taking a mini-vacation to Toronto and will catch it together. With luck we'll get a preview post up before then, but for sure if neither of us kills the other, you'll hear from us after the weekend is over.

In the meantime enjoy these:

This is what everything is for.

The Ghost of Edmonton Suck

I didn't post after Sunday's disappointment because I didn't have the words. The Stars latched onto this series and hauled themselves back into it and I felt that empty feeling of momentary panic in my stomach just like Christy. It has since subsided. I believe we can win this game and I believe we can win this series. But this is what it really comes down to, boys, because this is the thing that hurts the most:

TOBY EFFING PETERSEN.
Don't let this be what knocks you out.
SERIOUSLY.
We want a Battle of NPI (congrats to Elly and the Penguins!).

GO WINGS.

Someone pinch me

Courtesy of Gettyimages.com

Wow.

Go Pens.

The Curse of 10 (Stars 3, Wings 1)

How many times in the past few years have the Wings gotten to a 9 game winning streak? And yet 10 always seems to be inexplicably out of our reach. So maybe we should have expected it.

In general, the Stars outplayed the Red Wings last night. They the game for good reason - unfortunately for them there's going to be no one talking about the effort they finally mustered up and the hockey they finally got it in their heads to play. Because everyone is talking about Tomas' Holmstrom's rear end.

In an absolute debacle of a call, Kelly Sutherland, the center ice official, waved off a Pavel Datsyuk goal - which would have been the first of the game - on an interference call, claiming that Holmstrom was in the crease.

You tell me where the interference is.

When pressed to explain, the league conceded that his skates were outside of the blue paint, but that the call had been made because his backside was "hanging over the crease." ("I don't think that's a rule," says Henrik Zetterberg. Me either.) As if that weren't bad enough, the other excuse floating around is that it was a makeup call for a missed interference call on Homer in Game 1. Completely embarrassing. The idea of a perfectly legit goal being called off as basically an "oops we got it wrong" is disgusting. (Matt Saler [On the Wings] has a great post about this.) Congratulations, NHL, after making me think you had it in you to do something right (the fines assessed to Mike Ribeiro and Chris Osgood after Game 2) you go and spoil it with nonsense like this.

It's true you can't say that goal was the gamebreaker, but scoring the first goal in four straight games is quite the demoralizer. The Dallas Stars were playing great hockey last night, but there's no doubt in my mind that that call energized them, that they took something from it and went on to play better hockey, while it seemed to stick with the Wings in a much more negative manner. In some ways you can't blame them, but in others, things like this happen, and you can't use it as an excuse for not playing up to the necessary level.

Still, I have to say, most of last night's game is summed up by Datsyuk's reaction to his goal being waved off - "That's bullshit." (How great is his reaction there, actually? Not just the words, but the exasperated "whatever" screw-you hand wave? You can almost see him rolling his eyes despite the grainy Youtube quality. Pavel knows how inane that call was.)

And that's really unfortunate, because the Stars did play the better game, and they should be recognized for it - it's very unfortunate that they (hopefully!) won't have a win that isn't sullied by shoddy officiating and bush league "makeup" calls.

Podcasting again!

I once again guested on Finny (Girl with a Puck) and Connie's (A Queen Among Kings) "I'm Not a Puck Bunny" podcast, with Sherry (Scarlett Ice) and Cat (Untypical Girls). This week we spent a good portion of the time talking about this Dallas/Detroit series with reactions from both sides as well as the recent Fabian Brunnstrom sweepstakes, so plenty of things of interest for Detroit fans! As always you can check out this and every week's episode at http://imnotapuckbunny.podbean.com.

Hockey vs. Rent

There's been much ado in Hockeytown for the past few seasons over the declining attendance, but this season it seems even our own sportswriters are chomping at the bit to call out the Detroit faithful. Joe Hass over at Behind the Jersey and Dave at Gorilla Crouch have both already covered the matter of Mitch Albom's latest attack on Wings fans over with a completely valid (and completely brilliant) mixture of facts and appalled outrage at his gall to first scold us and then suggest such this:

"I know the economy is bad. I'm not telling people to hock the jewelry or find a job.

But we're not talking 100,000 spots here, either. There are enough fans and money in our area to fill those absent clusters. Hey, if we can fill Lions seats, we can fill Red Wings seats."

Now, I'm just one fan, and heck, I'm probably not even the fan Albom is targeting with this argument, but for just a few minutes let me deign to think myself important enough to explain why at least one fan has only been to two games this postseason -both with tickets I got for free.

I just finished undergrad. I'm living in an apartment two and a half hours away from the Joe, where I have a job that pays me, well, enough to cover rent, Center Ice, and the occasional trip to the bar. And no matter how much the ticket costs, it's already $55 in gas to get home. The absolute cheapest tickets for round one were $45 on top of that - not so bad right? But really, those are the seats at the very top of the arena, a few rows at most, and the next best come in at, $55. We're already up to $110 and that's without the service fees, because when you're 2 hours away you can't really go pick up your tickets from the Joe box office.

Those tickets in the picture above are mine from Games 1 and 2 of this round. $140 for seats in row 11 out of (I believe) 23 in the upper bowl, and $200 for seats halfway up the lower bowl. And they were great, both seats. Amazing atmosphere, fans, everything. The fans aren't acting like their claim to Hockeytown is dying. But if I hadn't gotten lucky enough to snag a couple corporate tickets from my dad? Heck no, I wouldn't have been able to get anywhere near the Joe - even the cheapest tickets this round clock in at a bank-account damaging $75, plus service charge, plus gas - and then you have to talk somebody else into paying that much to go with you.

Sure, Mitch, you probably weren't talking to college students in that article. You probably weren't calling for people to flock in from all across Michigan. In fact you were probably referring more to locals who still have stable jobs in our faltering economy, people who can maybe shell out that much for a game. But before you accuse Hockeytown of dying, think about all the people, all the fans, who would love to be at these games and simply can't do it.

I don't mean this to be a whiny woe-is-me I can't afford hockey tickets post, because I understand - I understand that ticket prices can only be knocked back so much (which they did this year, slashing some drastically) and that there's always going to be people who just have to wait it out until they hit the point where they can afford it, and I'm not blaming anyone for that. But, Mitch, don't knock the fans like me. We're doing what we can. We'd love to fill that arena if we could.

Say whatever you want, but whether I'm there or not in person, it isn't for lack of love for the game, the playoffs, or my team.

In 45 minutes the Wings will be trying to sweep the Stars to win the Western Conference Finals and advance for the chance to lift the Cup again for the first time since 2002, and if they do, when they come triumphantly back to the Joe to face their next opponent, I know a whole lot of people who would give anything to be in that arena spurring them on. Hockeytown isn't dead. GO WINGS.

Unstoppable (Wings 5, Stars 2)

Early on in the season the Wings garnered a sort of reputation as a "3rd Period Team" - a team who, even if they faltered early, seemed to get it together and pull things off in the waning minutes of the game (remember Brett Lebda and that Minnesota game?). Of course there have been some notable exceptions to this idea - in fact there have been several games where the third period proved to be their downfall (how about the subsequent L.A. disaster, or the twice-blown lead in Nashville?).

Still, in this vein, what the Wings have been succeeding at continues to be sheer relentlessness - and for the second series in a row the opponent, lauded for this same quality, has failed to match their strides. Last night the Wings post a 5-2 victory over Dallas, giving them a 3-0 lead in the series - not unsurmountable, but a whole new level of challenge for the Dallas Stars, who now sit on the brink of elimination.

I feel like this image does a nice job summing up the current emotions of both teams right now.

Once again last night the Stars looked better than they had previously, knotting the game at two (goals from Pavel Datsyuk of Detroit and Nicklas Grossman - his first in the NHL - and Brad Richards for Dallas) until Jiri Hudler scored a breakaway goal off of a great pass from Niklas Kronwall to put the Wings up again. Shortly after, Henrik Zetterberg made a fool of Richards, beating him on a one-on-one, the goal which seemed to put an end to Dallas' hopes for the evening. Before the game was over, Datsyuk notched his third, completing the first hat trick of his career, and the third Wings hat trick in these playoffs. Even with Johan Franzen missing at least three games now, the Wings' offense has remained deadly.

Despite the "festivities" at the end of Game 2, there was little retaliation from either team in Game 3, at least of the sort that could have gotten them into trouble. While it would have been nice to see Darren McCarty wail on Mike Ribeiro just for old time's sake, I'm very grateful the Wings took out their frustrations over the whole deal in a purely winning-oriented manner. Their discipline and strength of character (with few exceptions; I concede the Osgood spear the other night) is another of their strong suits and has definitely been making a difference for them - even if Marty Turco disagrees:

"When the intensity rises, we like our chances in that regard, too," Turco said. "We don't think much of them on a personal, character level. We think that's to our advantage."

Really, Marty? Don't get me wrong, I like you, but maybe you should worry more about the Wings' outstanding ability to get pucks behind you than their characters, not to mention the fact that your highly-touted play coming into this series has fallen rather flat.

Wednesday night's Game 4 in Dallas (once again at 8:00 p.m. EST) should be interesting - the Wings have an opportunity to complete their second sweep in a row and secure a spot in the Stanley Cup Finals, but one can only assume the Stars will be putting out all the stops to keep their spectacular season alive. I believe - but no one can completely count the Stars out yet. GO WINGS!